Question: There are 2,300 Phoenix police officers for a population in Phoenix of about 1,445,632. Does that mean there are about 767 patrol officers on duty for each of the three shifts? Or less if the 2,300 are not all patrol officers?

Answer: The Police Department's Crime Analysis and Research Unit uses a complex staffing formula to distribute police resources across the city.

Factors taken into consideration include everything from response times, the number of calls for service and geographical barriers, such as mountains and freeways that create a divide.

The department currently has 2,844 sworn officers. While just over 1,585 of these positions are assigned to patrol the city's precincts, an additional 530 officers supplement this number on a regular basis.

These are specialty positions, such as motor officers for traffic accidents, gang squad, downtown operations for special events, the airport bureau and tactical assistance like canine, SWAT and air support.

The remainder of our sworn personnel is case-carrying detectives, who follow up criminal reports or are in administrative positions, such as training and the public- information officer who provided this information.

The department also has about 125 sworn reserve police officers who donated more than 42,500 hours of service this year.

There are three shifts, and we cover 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. So those resources are spread out over that entire time period.

The allocation of these resources is constantly being evaluated and can be adjusted depending on events, peak times or incidents and is ever changing.

Sgt. Trent Crump is a spokesman with the Phoenix Police Department.

Have a public-safety question? Send it to christina.leonard@arizonarepublic.com.